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52 LAFD SECURITY & LABOR RELATIONS To provide consistency throughout LAFD, the current Cooperative Agreement (CA) identified security and safeguard requirements that are to be met by the department. The responsibility of overseeing these requirements was assigned to the Security & Administrative Services Manager. This program is in the ninth year of implementation with the major focus being: Identification of annual security training opportunities for department personnel; • Facilitation of the annual security trainings and badge renewals for department personnel; • Facilitation of the Q Clea- rance process, including initial investigation and five-year reinvestigations; • Address any security in- fractions identified by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL); • Facilitation of technology needs and/or improvements for the department; • Management of Asset Management program of Federal property; and, • Serve as the Business Official for the CA with NNSA/DOE. The Annual Security Refresher and Annual Information Security Refresher are courses that are an annual mandatory requirement. If these are not completed, LANL access may be denied. In order to address this department-wide, LAFD sponsors a “Security Blitz” prior to the expiration of all LANL Badges. In August all LAFD personnel were required to complete the two mandatory annual LANL courses and then in September all personnel reported to the LANL Badge Office to renew their LANL badge for the next year. The communication of Security Tidbits are disseminated on a monthly basis, or as appropriate. These are disseminated through e-mails to all LAFD personnel regarding various security topics. The topics are determined by either recent incidents and/or points from the trainings. An Anti-Harassment Training for all employees was conducted in November. A Cybersecurity Course was also conducted for all employees in November. This training also covered various aspects of se- curity/safeguard information including a review of cybersecurity incidents in Northern New Mexico, Los Alamos County policies for responding to suspicious incidents and reporting requirement. Additional Security and Safeguards Data, Including Staffing Changes: 2 new LANL badges were requested; 7 LANL badges were turned in due to retirements and terminations; 2 Q clearance ap- plications were initiated for the new hires with no pending applications from the previous year; 10 Q clearance reinvestigations were initiated; 0 security incident/ notification occurred; • The FY 2020 Federal Inventory was completed in November of 2020; • 7 personnel exited employment (4 retire- ments, 3 resignations) with LAC; 6 promotions occurred – all being uniformed personnel – to include 3 to Captain, 3 to Driver Engineer. Labor Relations Services The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) requires quarterly Labor Management Committee (LMC) meetings. The LMC actually meets every other month. The purpose of the LMC is not to alter the CBA, but to provide for clarification and implementation and address issues that arise outside of the CBA. The LMC discusses and develops solutions to any items that are discussed. With the intent of building and strengthening strong labor management relations, the committee attempts to meet al- ternating months with additional meetings as necessary. During 2020, 6 regular meetings were held. Negotiations for the successor contract started in October 2019 using the Interest Based Bargaining/ Affinity Model and were completed in 2020. The Agreement between the Incorporated County of Los Alamos and the Los Alamos Firefighters’ Association Local 3279 was implemented on July 1, 2020 and is in effect until June 30, 2025. Training on the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was con- ducted for all Chief Officers and Administrative Services staff. Service/Action Plan for 2020 In addition to the Annual Security Blitz and continued Security Tidbits, additional trainings were conducted in the following areas: Online trainings to include: Workplace Violence Awareness Briefing “Last Angry Word,” and Preventing Sexual Abuse.
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56 LAFD Crews practice their high angle rescue skills.
57 LAFD TRAINING •Target Solutions has continued to The Training Division provides oversight and ma- be a key training nagement for the development, delivery, evaluation, resource for de- and improvement of all education and certification to livery of training, ensure the safety, preparedness, effectiveness and records manage- career development of LAFD personnel. ment, ISOtraining Division Chief James Thwaits and Captain Aaron compliance and McNiff have shared the responsibilities of the Training special program Division since September 2018. We have continued training ma- to strengthen our interagency relationship with the nagement. We New Mexico State Fire Academy. were able to use We strive to identify instructional programs needed this system to at LAFD to support the Cooperative Agreement with track real time LANL and our mission. In addition to identifying pro- training data and grams, the division is currently looking for instructors minimize the use James Thwaits to support each discipline. Our ultimate goal is to es- of paper rosters tablish clear oversite and program management for as our tracking Training Division Chief all fire specific training. •In 2020 we continued to work on our Quality Matters system. We’re evaluation programs which are designed to improve able to send out up to date Training Progress courses taught here at LAFD. The program keeps Reports monthly. Almost all required annual both the course and instructor accountable for what training is now tracked through Target Solu- we say we are teaching and what the students are tions. learning. •We recertified all STT members to the NFPA 1403 Continuing Education/Professional Develop- Standard on Live Fire Training Evolutions compliance, ment which met our goal to have a minimum of two live fire training instructors per shift. This has allowed for LAFD has partnered with multiple New Mexico better utilization of the training tower for live fire trai- Universities to offer degree programs to LAFD ning evolutions. FCD 700.3 Practical learning center/ personnel. Degrees included are in Emergen- Burn Building Live Burn Exercises & Use of Live Burn cy Management, Fire Science, Wildland Fire Training Props was developed and implemented th- Science and Emergency Medical Services. roughout the department. •The Shift Training Team (STT) has 12 members LAFD continues to strive to improve in all that are responsible for facilitating all department respects. Not only has LAFD assumed the re- trainings that occur on their designated shift. Such sponsibility to certify all EMS responders to the trainings will include all disciplines – including but national level, steps have also been taken to not limited to – suppression, EMS, technical rescue, provide other certifications to the national level. hazardous materials, fire investigation, and adminis- trative. All members are adjunct instructors through During 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic the New Mexico State Firefighters Training Academy, and social distancing health order the Training and some hold EMS Instructor Level and AHA Inst- Division utilized video training and has also re- ructor Levels in HeartSaver, Basic Life Support (BLS), corded trainings in Target Solutions for all field Advanced Life Support (ALS), Paramedic Advanced personnel. Life Support (PALS), and Pediatrics Emergency As- sessment Recognition and Stabilization (PEARS). Additional 2020 Training Highlights •Maintain Blue Card training at 100% completed for January – December 2020 Forcible Entry the ranks of Driver Engineer and above. Based on Training at Fire Station #2 Practical Lear- newly promoted personnel, required Blue Card trai- ning Center ning will be assigned and completed per Fire Chief January 10, 2020 – Graduation of 9 fire Directive (FCD) 400.15 Incident Command and Blue recruits from LAFD Academy #28 Card Command Manual. January – March 2020 – ERRT Ventilation & Unique Materials Training Completed February – March 2020 Wildland Refres- her March-April 2020 – Wildland Pack Test June 2020 – Blue Card May Day Proce- dures Training and Blue Card SIM Lab November – December 2020- Annual Extrication Training
58 LAFD WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING SERVICES
59 LAFD WILDLAND It is my honor to give the 2020 Annual Report for the Wildland Division. Adjusting to COVID-19 precautions were a challenge, nonetheless, LAFD responded locally and nationally to assist with wildland fire suppression. In 2020, wildland fire deployments were significantly up, in large part, to extreme fire conditions in California. LAFD sent crews and apparatus to 14 incident team managed, large fires in New Mexico in addition to 3 EMAC deployments to California. LAFD continued to provide mutual aid to multiple agencies across Northern New Mexico. 2020 also marked the first time that LAFD personnel were deployed as Fireline EMTs, Plans Section Chief, Wildland Fire Investigator, and Santa Fe Zone Dispatch assignments. LAFD crews also assisted Bandelier National Park by providing severity patrols to help supple- ment resource shorta- ges. Kelly Sterna This past year, in part- Wildland Division Chief nership with LANL, LAFD took delivery of six Type 5 wildland engines. These engines actively suppressed wildland fires not only within Los Alamos county, but also on the Valles Caldera and Santa Fe National forest property. LAFD expects delivery of 3 of 6 Type 2 Tactical water tenders by the end of 2020. The LAFD wildland division also created a small, unmanned aerial system (sUAS) program in 2019. LAFD acquired an addi- tional sUAS platform to aid in missions such as search & rescue and wildland fire scouting/ size up. LAFD Wildland Division was active in securing an additional grant funding in 2020. The first grant award was a $108,000 grant through New Mexico State Fire Marshal’s Office This grant will be used to purcha- se SCBA that are compliant to the latest NFPA Standard. The LAFD Wildland Division was awarded a $22,000 grant from the New Mexico State Fire Marshal Volunteer Fire Assistance grant. This grant award purchased PPE for LAFD operations personnel. Los Alamos county was honored in 2019 to become the first municipality in New Mexico ever to move to phase II of a New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (DHSEM) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). In 2020, LAFD, with the assistance of Santa Fe County Fire De- partment, completed mitigation of 114 acres of county owned property. This work was originally slated to be completed through 2021 but was finished in May of 2020. In addition, vital data was compiled to aid LAFD in the event of another, large wildfire event within property boundaries. These incident res- ponse plans will provide a great deal of information to crews that may need to respond. This will prompt a significant update to the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) in 2021. LAFD also con- tinued its home assessment program, which is outlined in the public outreach component of this grant, which will help guide homeowners in protecting property in wildfire prone neighbor- hoods adjacent to mitigation efforts. CWPP’s are
60 LAFD IAFF LOCAL 3279 This last year IAFF local 3279, worked closely with the Safety and EMS divisions, to come up policies and procedures to address the COVID 19 pandemic. On July 1st a new Collective Bargaining Agreement went into affect. The new contract secured pay increase for all bargaining member. In October our Breast Cancer awareness T shirt fundraiser, raised over $5,000. Which was donate to someone battling Breast cancer. Our local was also able to raise funds for member in need to due to a cover unex- pected medical condition.
61 LAFD IAFF 3279 EXECUTIVE BOARD Bert Quintana Mike Montoya Allen Quintana President Vice President Secretary Kevin Kamplain Robert Sanchez Will Lundquist Daniel Archuleta Treasurer Steward Steward Steward Keith Garcia Jeff Saiz Ray Gandara Andres Madueno Trustee Trustee Trustee Sergeant of Arms
62 LAFD TECHNICAL RESCUE TEAM Daniel Garcia TRT Lead The year 2020 brought on a lot of challenges to everyone around the world and has made its significant mark on history as we are living through the COVID-19 pandemic. It was not any different for the Los Alamos Fire Department, and its specialty teams. The Los Alamos Fire Department Technical Rescue Team definitely saw an impact of the results of the pandemic. In a normal year, the TRT prides itself on the fact that we are consistently compliant with our NFPA 1006 training re- quirements. The year 2020 set forth challenges that did not allow the team do hands on trainings as frequent as we normally schedule for the year. We did our best to work around the challenges, and tried to have different avenues of distance learning. We also utilized hands on learning opportunities that required social distancing. Unfortunately, many of our quarterly trainings that we provide to the team annually, had to be cancelled due to Covid restrictions. A great deal of respon- sibility was place on the shoulders of our technicians as they had to be creative by providing technical rescue trainings to their respective crews to keep up their skills. Although there were many challenges to overcome in the year 2020, our Technical Rescue Team was successful in responding to, and mitigating all rescue responses within Los Alamos County, and neigh- boring mutual aid areas. The department responded to 59 technical rescue calls, 34 of which were emergency related. The department re- sponded to 28 motor vehicle accidents with injuries, 6 of which requi- red extrication. There were 10 elevator emergency calls, 3 High angle rescue/recovery, 7 trail or wilderness search and rescue calls. Addi- tionally, there were a variety of other rescue related calls, including mutual aid responses out of county. Our rescue response equated to 2.94% of total calls for Los Alamos County, which was also a 14.49% drop from 2019. The assumption for this significant drop is also due to COVID-19 as there was less daily traffic to the Los Alamos National Laboratory and more people social distancing, and staying home. The community took the forest trails to practice social distancing, which increased technical rescue opportunities. Our team responded on nu- merous trail rescues as people either got lost, or were ill prepared for the constant weather changes of New Mexico. Nevertheless, the Los Alamos Fire Department Technical Rescue Team was prepared and responded with the utmost urgency and professionalism. Unfortunately, no technical rescue members were able to attend any out of county specialty rescue trainings due to Covid restrictions. The- refore, the effort to expand and grow the knowledge of the team was limited. A plan was set forth to prioritize more hands on training within trench rescue type incidents, but also fell short due to Covid restric- tions. The team purchased Conex boxes. These boxes will be used for storage and training props for trench rescue training opportunities. We have also prepared a standard operating guideline for trench rescue emergencies based on FEMA curriculum guidelines. Hopefully, a handle on COVID-19 will come to fruition and we will be able to roll out this training opportunity to the Technical Rescue Team. Despite the challenges that came along with the year 2020, the Los Alamos County Fire Department Technical Rescue Team provided 24/7/365 professional response ready service to the County of Los Alamos and surrounding areas.
63 LAFD PUBLIC EDUCATION TEAM Los Alamos Fire Department (LAFD) provides Joseph Baca outreach and education to the Community of Pub Ed Lead Los Alamos as well as communities throug- hout Northern New Mexico including Pojoa- LAFD participates in community social distancing que, Espanola, Taos, Velarde and Chama. The outreach parades. 2020 year was challenging for community outreach and public education due to the complex conditions brought on by COVID-19. Community events and educational pro- grams the department normally participate in throughout the year were all cancelled, this included all school presentations, fire extingu- isher education, station tours, etc., In addition to the challenges faced with educational programs and the pandemic, local businesses utilized for educational message and PSA’s. Both local radio stations and local movie theaters went out of business due to the pandemic. Historically LAFD would utilize both these businesses significantly in delivering educational messages to the public LAFD also saw a new “trend” start with the pandemic in-terms of “drive-by parades”. With parties and events canceled due to the pandemic LAFD have participated in “drive-by parades” to help families and businesses celebrate special events, including birthdays, retirements and graduation. LAFD looked at ways to deliver messages differently. The department invested in some additional equipment to help in creating and editing educational videos used on our social media platforms. LAFD is taking this time to look at new avenues for delivering educational messaging, as well as providing educational messaging based on targeted risks for the community. LAFD applied and was accepted to participate in the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Community Risk Assessment Pilot Program. This pilot program will provide the depart- ment with a customized dashboard identifying targeted risks based on call data. In additional this pilot program will provide networking opportunities and professional development opportunities to help support our Community Risk Reduction efforts. LAFD will continue to steps planning for the upcoming year and looking at ways to improve community events, as well as being prepared to resume activities when restric- tions have been lifted.
64 LAFD HAZMAT TEAM John Napier Hazmat Team Lead 2020 proved to be a challenging year for the Los Alamos Fire De- partment (LAFD) Hazardous Materials Team (HMT), as well as for the department in general. Despite guideline changes and res- trictions we were able to assist in the department’s accreditation process, acquire new equipment, calibrate/repair equipment and conduct essential training. Our department’s air monitoring equip- ment was updated with new MSA Altair 5X units. These detectors were placed on all front line units and the department was trained in their use. We also acquired new radiation surveying equipment which will be put in service as soon as training can be received. The LAFD HMT continues to move towards a FEMA Type 1 Hazmat Entry Team ready for deployments to hazardous materials emer- gencies in our own community as well as regional responses. In 2020, we responded to various motor vehicle accidents, fuel spills, gas leaks, and identification of unmarked containers in the public. Hazardous materials team (HMT) training presented unique chal- lenges in 2020 as COVID restrictions reduced group gatherings. As such, new techniques and training delivery methods were intro- duced to keep the HMT trained throughout the year. Two of the four traditional quarterly trainings needed to be cancelled, greatly reducing face to face contact training time. The first quarterly training was conducted prior to the restrictions; it was an update and refresher on the department’s Inficon portable gas chromato- graph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) presented by Driver Engineer Daniel Gandara. The third quarterly training was conducted by Captain Joe DeFranco to ensure team members received their OSHA-mandated Level-A suit proficiency. The hands-on training covered basic hazardous materials skills such as drum plugging, spill control and overpacking; use of the chlorine C-kit to control leaks from cylinders; and a refresher on PPE donning, doffing and emergency suit extractions. To ensure all members received Level-A suit proficiency, Captain John Napier also conducted indi- vidual training for team members unable to attend the third quar- terly offering. To ensure HMT members met the training hours required, training was moved to the Target Solutions platform with the assistance of the Training Division. Topics covered under this platform included bonding and grounding for fuel transfer; nuclear detonation res- ponse techniques; use of the chlorine A, B and C kits; review and use of Draeger tubes; screening of individuals with radiological contamination and a review of all applicable Fire Chiefs Directives (FCDs). HMT team members were also responsible for presenting the department-wide hazardous materials awareness and operations training on the new MSA AltAir 5X monitors put into service in 2020. Firefighter Kevin Kamplain produced a detailed training video for the HMT technicians to use as a starting point for the training. The LAFD HMT is committed to protecting the public from hazar- dous materials incidents. We will continue to hone our skills and take advantage of training opportunities to ensure the team is ready to respond to incidents at the Los Alamos National Labora- tory, in our community and all of New Mexico. We will continue to upgrade equipment and educate the members of the department on hazardous materials response.
65 LAFD Address 999 CENTRAL AVENUE SUITE 200 LOS ALAMOS, NM 87544 (505) 662-8301- Main line Online https://www.losalamosnm.us/govern- ment/departments/fire_department
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